


misled

by tuesdead



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Amnesia, Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Anakin's memories are shaky at best, Angst, Darth Vader is a farce, F/M, Family Reunions, Gen, Grief, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Luke Skywalker Needs A Hug, Luke is a mechanic, Obi-Wan trained little luke, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, a bit of violence, and then he 'died', luke and leia are 17, sarcastic luke skywalker, the lars family is dead
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:27:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27481198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesdead/pseuds/tuesdead
Summary: Anakin Skywalker has returned.Seventeen years after the fall of the Republic, Darth Vader crash-lands on desert planet Tatooine. A local mechanic rescues the Sith Lord while scavenging the wreckage for parts, and inadvertently frees an enslaved Jedi.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa & Anakin Skywalker, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 22
Kudos: 100





	1. The Crash

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This story has been sitting in my docs for over a year without a title. It's still a WIP but I have faith that this one, at least, is going to be completed here soon. I have enough for one or two more chapters before I need to continue writing, but I think it's going to take me time to finish this one while I'm still writing my monstrous Naruto fic.
> 
> ANYWAY! This is set 17 years after the fall of the Republic; Anakin's memories have been meddled with, but a freak accident leads to a chance meeting leads to a reunion.
> 
> Enjoy!

Anakin isn’t sure how long it has been since he’s looked at the world with his own two eyes. It has been _years_ since the fight on Mustafar, and yet, Anakin isn’t even sure what’s real anymore. It feels like one long, painful dream. A dream of fire, and pain, and unbearable emptiness. It’s like he isn’t even alive anymore.

He had been weak in the face of the Dark Side, and now it is his Master. He really is a slave, isn’t he? Apparently that is all he was ever meant to be. A slave to Watto, a slave to his destiny, and now a slave to his Sith master and the dark side of the Force.

_So, the Emperor is distracted, is he?_

He flinches, squinting underneath the red lenses of his mask.

“Obi-Wan?”

 _Anakin, my friend, it’s been a long time. Tell me, what do you remember?_ He can’t see his old Jedi Master, but he can hear him. For the first time in a very long time.

“What do you mean?”

_What happened after you pledged yourself to Darth Sidious?_

He frowns. “Why are you asking me this? You know what happened.”

_But do you?_

Silence fills the space around him, aside from the sound of his respirator, damaged though it is. “Vaguely. I suppose.”

_So, tell me, Anakin. What happened?_

The truth is, Anakin _doesn’t_ really remember everything. Glimpses, sure. Vague ideas, yeah. Not full memories.

 _Anakin,_ Obi-Wan interrupts his spiralling thoughts by sighing out his name, _I haven’t felt your presence since before your fall to the Dark Side. Sidious had already twisted you up so much by then, your Force Presence hasn’t entirely been you. And then, this morning, I felt it. Suddenly, you were here, and I was... thrown._

“Obi-Wan?”

Obi-Wan’s thoughts fall silent, giving him permission to speak.

“Where am I?”

Anakin gets the impression that Obi-Wan is frowning. _I don’t actually know where you are, physically. I cannot pinpoint your location because it is hidden from me._

“By Sidious?”

 _Surprisingly, no. I don’t know who is hiding you, but they must be very powerful. And yet, I sense no darkness. It seems the Force is at an impasse--waiting for a move to be made. The question is, who? Who will be the first to decide what happens next. Things are even quiet from Sidious’s end. This newcomer threw everyone for a loop, it seems. And so few Jedi are left_ (Anakin’s chest _aches_ with the truth behind it) _that we cannot come out of hiding to discuss it._

“How long has it been?” Anakin ventures to ask.

_Seventeen years, Anakin. It’s been seventeen years since the Republic fell._

-

When he wakes again, the world around him is dark, and he still cannot move. But he doesn’t mind. If he’s not moving, and he can’t see, he probably can’t hurt anybody. He hopes.

“Can you hear me?” somebody asks. The person sounds young, and their voice falls on curious ears.

“Yes,” Anakin replies, despite not knowing who holds his leash. Whatever fate awaits him, he will accept it. It can’t be any worse than the destruction he’s unleashed on the galaxy. Truthfully, he feels like a puppet with cut strings: unable to lift a finger without his Master’s command.

A disgruntled hum follows his train of thought. “You’re not on a leash. At least, not here. I’m not your Master.” And then he _feels_ , hands trailing across his chest, studying the suit that keeps him alive.

Deft fingers spring the helmet’s release, followed by a delighted laugh. “Alright, Vader. Let’s look at you.”

The boy studies his face for a moment, and then turns his gaze to the mask in his hand. “Interesting.” He tosses it behind him without a second thought, moving to dismantle the suit piece by piece. Anakin is resigned to his fate after the initial spike of panic that fills him after his long-time companion ( _seventeen years_ the Force whispers to him) lands on the floor with a crash, and it takes far too long to realize that instead of slowly suffocating to death, the air is filling his lungs easier than he can recall since before… before red lenses and heavy armor and _burning_.

“If I didn’t know any better,” the boy says, and then shoots him a frown, “I’d say you weren’t hardly evil at all. Not once have you threatened to strangle me. The impression I got looking at all the holos left me wanting for violence, you know.”

This time, Anakin catches the glint of humor in the boy’s eye.

“ _Stop_ it,” he groans, tossing out wires, humor falling away. “I’m not a kid, okay? I’m seventeen standard years old and I’d give you a run for your money in a race any day.” Anakin knows there are words he doesn’t say, but he refuses to pry.

Anakin closes his eyes for a moment, thoughts drifting to his childhood, to podracing for Watto every standard month. “Where are we?”

The boy--er… The newcomer blinks at him (and then rolls his eyes at Anakin’s failure to think of him as anything but a child). “Well, the trouble with telling you is that you’re supposed to be some Lord of the Emperor, and I’m just me, and if I tell you where we are, you might find a way to tell him and then I could get killed. And I’m not really looking to die, Vader. Not today.”

If Anakin could see his reflection, he was sure his jaw would be clenched, little veins popping out on his forehead. “Please don’t call me Vader. My name is Anakin.”

The Force rings true with it, and Anakin can breathe. It’s _true_. He’s not Vader. He’s Anakin again.

“So, you mean to tell me that you’re two different people?”

Like that, his thoughts drift to the situation he’s in. “I don’t know. I don’t really even remember the last seventeen years. I remember vague images, flashes of fear and sadness and anger. But nothing duracrete. If it wasn’t for Obi-Wan, I wouldn’t even know that it’s been that long. I know… that I’ve done bad things. But I don’t remember doing them. Not really.”

In return, he receives a shrug. “As far as I know, your acts of terror are nothing compared to what Lady Obruo has done. Besides, she’s the one who wiped out the Jedi one by one.”

Anakin’s thoughts stop in their tracks. “ _Who_?”

Disbelief tinges the Force that surrounds the boy. “You’ve got to be kriffing _kidding_ me.”

-

The thing is–

Well, the thing is, Anakin has never even _heard_ of this Lady Obruo character. And… if Vader is supposedly Sidious’ Right Hand and all that, shouldn’t he know everybody else under Sidious’ command? You would think.

“You know this monstrosity you’re wearing isn’t doing you any favors, right?”

And, you see, the thing _is_ –

Anakin had thought the suit was keeping him alive. But, no. No, the suit was keeping him in check, a way to control him, to keep his powers under his Master’s thumb, to keep him submissive and in pain until Sidious had no further use for him.

But.

Anakin crashed, and this stranger collected him, _freed_ him, just like he’d wanted to free the slaves when he was a child, like his mother believed he would (oh, _force_ , he’d let her down).

“I’m pretty sure you have some false memories kicking around in that head of yours. It was Lady Obruo that attacked the Jedi temple, from what I understand. I get the impression you thought the Emperor had made _you_ kill the children.”

Sithspit, how does this guy _know_ all of this stuff?

As Anakin has grown accustomed to, his thoughts are answered. “The Force tells me things. I guess it hasn’t been able to tell you anything the past twenty years, though, the way it’s shouting at me now.”

A chill snakes up Anakin’s spine. He’d been so far lost to all that he stood for, and all the while, the people he cared about--Obi-Wan, Padme, the Order--were hunted down and _killed_ , scattered across the galaxy, when he was supposed to be the one that saved them. How foolish he’d been. So _arrogant_.

Alas, what’s the point of dwelling on it now, when he can do nothing for the people he’d once protected.

“Kriff, you’re a _sad_ son of a sarlacc, you know that?”

Anakin chuckles. The irony is not lost on him. “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me where I am _now_?”

He shrugs. “You’re still a Sith Lord or something like that, although you no longer look the part. The whole behemoth thing didn’t really do you justice.”

A moment passes while he continues to dismantle the dark mechanical monstrosity. “Actually, without the suit, a lot of the Dark I was getting from you has dissipated.”

-

When Luke had seen the TIE Advanced crash, he’d gotten a whisper from the Force that he should go to the wreck site--but he hadn’t expected the pilot to have survived, let alone be _Darth Vader_ himself. What was he supposed to do with that information?

He collected the parts he could salvage, and reluctantly (okay, he really didn’t mind) rescued the man inside the craft before leaving the remains to burn and returning to his own little mechanic shop in Anchorhead.

Hours passed while he sorted through the debris he’d brought back with him, but he checked on his guest from time to time, though the man was unconscious for hours. The first time Vader woke, Luke had fallen asleep (look, he’d already been awake for almost thirty-seven hours when the TIE crashed), so he didn’t catch the conversation going on in his workshop until it had been several minutes. So, a little prompting, and his guest, still dazed (and, dare he say, drugged) was back to sleep, hidden behind Luke’s shielding.

But the monster of a man is so _different_ than he’s been portrayed (by the media across the galaxy, but also by the Emperor himself). And Luke wonders, where is the Sith that he’d come to expect? He was beginning to think Darth Vader wasn’t really a Sith Lord at all.

“Who were you talking to earlier?” he eventually asks, acknowledging that this _Anakin_ hasn’t attempted to move at all despite being free of the torture chamber he’d come to live in.

He waits while Anakin gauges the danger he poses by exposing his contact, although he can already picture the person Anakin is thinking of. It stirs something in his memories, something old and long-forgotten, but the thought gets lost when Anakin begins to speak. “His name is Obi-Wan Kenobi… When I was a Jedi, he was my master. He was also a General in the Clone Wars. We were as close as brothers. He practically raised me.” _And I betrayed him._ Anakin didn’t finish his thoughts out loud, but Luke was fairly certain he was aware that Luke would hear them.

It’s a lot to feel guilty about, but still, all evidence suggests that Anakin hasn’t actually done any of the betraying he thinks he has. He’d even admitted he doesn’t _remember_ much about the past several years.

Well, maybe Luke can remedy that. At least a little. “The day the Empire was founded, most of the Jedi were slaughtered by Lady Obruo, and Palpatine declared peace three months later, when the majority of the Jedi had been hunted down and killed. The formal story was that the two most favored Jedi had been turned on by their own Order, but I’ve never known their names. I’m sure somebody does. After that, the Emperor announced that he had two loyal Sith as his servants, Lady Obruo, and you, Lord Vader. You were both feared across the Galaxy, and your _accomplishments_ were publicly announced, although I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Holo of one of yours. Perhaps you’ve never actually done anything that Palpatine asked of you, and you’re just his toy. Perhaps he enjoys having you on such a tight leash, powerless against him.” Luke turns back to the powercell in front of him. “It was released to the media this morning that Darth Vader was killed while on active duty. They haven’t recovered his remains, of course, but they’re certain of his demise.”

_Perhaps it would have been better if I was truly dead._

“What, you don’t like Tatooine?”

The man is suddenly sitting up, as if his body had reacted without his permission. “ _Tatooine_? You live on Tatooine?”

Luke raises his eyebrows, curious. “I’m sensing there’s more than a general dislike for the climate here.”

“I was a slave here. My mother was killed by Tusken Raiders. My fall to the Dark Side began here.”

Okay, Luke can understand his disgust for the place, considering. “I’m sorry about your mother. Too many have died at the hands of the Raiders.” Unbidden, his mind takes him back to the deaths of his aunt and uncle, and his failure to help them. “My aunt and uncle suffered the same fate.”

Anakin shifts, hanging his legs over the edge of the durasteel workbench, watching Luke. “I’m sorry.”

His mental shields are back up, and strong, so Luke pulls back his own, leaving Anakin to his own defense once again. “I’m not going to make you stay here, but I’m not going to ask you to leave. You should probably eat something, though, no matter what you decide.”

With tentative steps, Anakin finds his way to the refresher, and Luke leaves him be. He doesn’t think his guest will leave until he’s at least a bit more sure of himself, and perhaps, with a little time, Luke can learn something new, as well.

-

Anakin leaves three days later. Although he’s still confused, and feels a lot like he needs to learn how to live again, he doesn’t want to overstay his welcome, and it’s a sure bet that he needs to find Obi-Wan, if for no other reason than to apologize.

Carefully, shielding himself from anything that isn’t his previous Master’s presence, Anakin finds him--he’s not even far away.

_What are you doing on this wretched planet?_

He gets the sense that Obi-Wan is shocked, which just further proves that his confusion is certainly warranted. What has _happened_ to the galaxy?

_Anakin?_

But, he remembers what his--rescuer? captor? acquaintance?--had said, that the Emperor had announced his death all over the media.

_I’m not dead, if that’s what you’re thinking. Free is more like it._

He waits, but instead of answering him, he feels Obi-Wan’s force presence closing in on his location, and decides that the best course of action is to sit and face his fate. His conscience, while unclear, is much lighter than it had been before he’d been removed from the cage that Sidious had put him in.

Time stands still when he makes out the speeder coming toward him, but he does his best to not get overwhelmed by the anticipation. He can’t quite get a grasp on Obi-Wan’s emotions, understands that he’s not meant to.

And then, he’s leaping out of the speeder, slowing when they’re face-to-face. “It’s really you.”

Obi-Wan looks tired. It’s the only word Anakin considers to be fitting. He doesn’t look old, although there are a few more lines around his eyes. His hair, though, has only greyed a little, and he looks far too thin. Anakin wishes they were anywhere but Tatooine.

“Obi-Wan, I’m–”

“Silence, Anakin. Just…” He doesn’t finish, hands reaching for Anakin and-

Hugging him? Obi-Wan was _hugging him._

“I tried to protect him,” Obi-Wan finally tells him, so quietly. “We hid them from the Emperor, and I tried to protect him, Anakin, but I was called away for _one day_ , and those filthy tusken raiders killed them--slaughtered them.”

Anakin’s blood chills. “What?”

“Your son, Anakin,” Obi-Wan finally tells him. “When Padme went into labor, we knew that Palpatine would do anything he could to take your children, so… we separated them, and hid them, and when there was an attack on Naboo, I left to help. When I came back, the homestead had burned, and we found the charred remains inside after _hours_ of trying to reach them. I’m so sorry, Anakin.”

He’d never known. The only thing the Emperor had ever told him was that Padme was dead, their child with her.

“Is Padme truly dead, as well?” he manages to ask, though he’s not hopeful.

“We lost contact not long after we separated. She wasn’t on Naboo. We knew better than to send her home, but with the Rebellion, and both children so far apart–”

“Both?”

“Twins,” Obi-Wan explains after a moment. “She gave birth to twins, Luke and Leia. I brought Luke to your step-brother, and Bail Organa took his sister to Alderaan. Master Yoda handled Padme’s transfer off of Coruscant.”

A part of him wants to resent them all, but he finds it very hard to do. All he can think about is that his worst nightmare had been only that--a nightmare. It was never a premonition at all. And that means that there’s still a chance that Padme--and their daughter--could be alive.


	2. The Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reunited with his oldest friend and former Jedi Master, Anakin returns to Anchorhead to thank the boy who made it possible, only when he gets there... the boy is gone.
> 
> Alternately, our favorite mechanic is arrested, but at least Anakin's on the path to recovery. Not just his own recovery, but the recovery of loved ones, as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... I know I said that updates would be kind of slow, but who am I kidding? I have very little impulse control. if any. With that in mind, when I run out of pre-written content, updates actually _will_ be slow, so please be patient with me! I have no impulse control!
> 
> A bit of a longer chapter this time, and it could probably use some fine-tuning, but I have the feeling once this thing is done, I'll be going back through to edit and all that jazz.
> 
> I sincerely hope you all enjoy!

Somehow, they end up back where this whole thing started--in Anchorhead. He wants to thank the boy for helping him, for setting him free, and Anchorhead is as good as any other place for getting off world. Once there, though, Anakin discovers that the mechanic shop he left not hours before is burning, and the Force is practically _shouting_ at him to find his rescuer before it’s too late (although how the man could be defeated despite his power in the Force, Anakin isn’t sure).

“Anakin, what is it?”

“The kid who rescued me--that’s his place.”

It takes some time, but after asking around for a while, the two of them are told that Stormtroopers had flooded the place after getting tipped off that the mechanic was responsible for collecting Vader’s corpse. Apparently, they’d arrested him and set his home (workshop?) on fire.

 _Anakin, there’s nothing we can do for him now. We’re better off going to the Rebellion_.

As much as he doesn’t like to admit it, he knows that Obi-Wan is right, that there’s nothing they can do for the boy now, but a part of him wants to rant and rave about how unfair it is. All the boy had done was save him, and now he’s almost certainly on his way to an Imperial Detention center where he’ll await his execution.

_Anakin?_

“I’m sorry,” he says, shaking himself out of his thoughts. There’s nothing he can do to help the boy now, save for joining the Rebellion and fighting against everything that he’d been forced to follow. “What now?”

-

Luke doesn’t waste his energy pacing the Force-dampening cell that the female Sith had locked him in--it would have been pointless. No, instead, he meditates. What is he supposed to do? For the second time in so many years, his home has been burned by people he despises, and he’s left with nothing. No belongings, no family, no connections.

The people who had been his neighbors for the last handful of years had easily betrayed him to the Imperial Army the second they realized they might get something out of it, but Luke’s used to paying the price of somebody else’s mistakes. After all, it wasn’t his fault that Tusken Raiders invaded the moisture farm where he’d spent the first eight years of his life, though he was the only survivor, and was forced to live alone on the edge of civilization until he was old enough to work--forced to live like the very beings who’d taken his family.

He’s sure there must be a reason that the Force led him to this. After all, he wouldn’t have freed Anakin from the grips of the Empire without the Force’s meddling, therefore he wouldn't be in this situation. Either way, releasing that man from Sidious’s chains isn’t something Luke can bring himself to regret.

The door to his cell slides open and two Stormtroopers step inside with him. “Stand, hands behind your back.”

Luke does as he’s told, wondering just what kind of interrogation they had planned for him. Technically, he wasn’t a rebel, but he could, he supposes, be labeled as a traitor and face execution.

-

“What is your name?”

Luke inhales, uncomfortable with the binders around his wrists. “My name is Luke Lars.”

“Are you a member of the Rebel Alliance?”

“No, I’m a mechanic.”

“For what reason did you visit the site of the TIE-Advanced wreck outside of Anchorhead?”

He wants to roll his eyes. Is she stupid? You don’t waste parts on a planet like Tatooine, you salvage everything you can. “I was collecting parts when I found Vader’s body.”

“What did you do with it?”

What did he _do_ with it? Did she expect him to say that he released Anakin from the suit and destroyed as much of Vader’s suit as he could? “I disposed of the body and repurposed parts of his life support suit, although your men destroyed my whole workshop.”

He gets a vague, distant warning through the Force just before she strikes him, the back of her hand cracking against his jaw. His teeth slice through his tongue, and his head swings to the side, but Luke doesn’t fight the smugness he feels. “What?” he asks, broken jaw aching. He does his best to ignore it. While Luke is neither a light-sider or a dark-sider, he isn’t a sith, and that’s an important distinction. Pain will not give him power if he has anything to say about it.

He senses that he was not the only one injured in her display of anger.

“ _You will not speak of the late Lord Vader in that tone_.”

-

 _Do you feel that?_ Anakin asks, feeling dazed, and maybe a little hysteric.

Obi-Wan’s presence is soothing. “He’s looking for you. I don’t know what that mechanic did, but he certainly hid you from the Emperor.”

Anakin wishes he had Obi-Wan’s optimism, but he fears that if Palpatine gets close to him, he’ll be back under the Sith’s thumb, and he doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want that at all.

“Anakin, I’m not going to lose you again,” comes Obi-Wan’s voice, low and steady. He flushes with affection for the conviction in which his former Master says it. “I’ve already let you down so much.”

They drop out of hyperspace at the edge of Alderaan’s atmosphere, and though Anakin isn’t sure what to expect, the voice on the other side of the com asking for their identification codes does a number on his psyche.

“This is rogue alpha requesting permission to land.” Obi-Wan shoots Anakin a smile when he shakes himself out of his stupor enough to physically react.

_“Granted. Proceed to the eastern landing pad for processing.”_

-

The planet itself radiates all the calm of the Senator’s home, but Anakin doesn’t let himself get caught up in the light, not enough that he forgets himself. He follows Obi-Wan to the ramp, but hesitates, wondering what they’ll think when they see him.

“Senator,” Obi-Wan greets warmly, clasping his hands inside the sleeves of his robes. He wants to laugh, but he can’t help but mourn how many years have passed him by. “How is the princess?”

Bail hums. “I think she makes a better senator than I do.”

 _A senator,_ Anankin thinks. Like Padme.

“She would have learned from one of the best,” Obi-Wan concedes. _Are you going to hide in there for the rest of the evening, Anakin?_

“I have to admit, after the tragedy with her brother, I never expected you’d leave Tatooine unless asked.”

Anakin feels Obi-Wan’s grief, but he doesn’t let it weigh him down. There’s nothing to be done about that, now.

 _I’m just waiting for the right moment, Master_. The title surprises both of them, but it’s fitting. Aside from the circumstances, it feels like old times.

“Actually, I’m heading toward our mutual friend, but her location seems to have evaded me. After all, we only have a few allies these days. And Bail…, I’m not going alone.”

 _Well,_ Anakin thinks, _now or never_ , and steps out into the open, descending the ramp to look Bail in the eyes. He wonders how he looks to the Senator after all this time, but pushes those thoughts out of his mind. “It’s good to see you, Senator Organa.”

First he senses shock, followed by joy. “You’re alive!” Bail surges forward, shaking his hand. Then, something must occur to him, because he feels a sense of loss. “Leia…”

 _Oh_.

“Bail, I’m not here to intrude,” he finally hedges, after a short, awkward silence. “We’re… kind of mission oriented right now, and I have no right to show up after… seventeen years and demand any part of her life.”

“You’re still her father,” Bail says, softly. Kindly. “And Leia _will_ want to meet you. Besides, she hasn’t seen Obi-Wan since she was eight years old. She would be sad to hear you were here and didn’t say hello.”

With that, Bail turns on his heel and leads them inside. Anakin falls in step at Obi-Wan’s side, just this side of uncomfortable. He isn’t used to such interactions anymore; being received so warmly, after his supposed death, is a bit of a wake-up call. He really isn’t the monster that Sidious made him think he was.

It’s not that he’s afraid he’s inherently evil, like he has no choice. He’s going to stay in the light if it kills him. It’s just that he keeps wondering what kind of contingencies Palpatine set up in case Anakin ever escaped him.

 _Anakin, your thoughts betray you_.

When he was younger, that tone annoyed him to no end, but Anakin huffs a laugh. _I’m sorry, Obi-Wan. I just don’t want to become his slave again._

-

Leia Organa is many things, but soft is not one of them. She’s always been a little sharp, a little frigid, but that doesn’t mean she feels no compassion. She’s seen both sides of this war, though, and the only thing stopping her from falling to her knees in despair is her own determination.

Everyone needs to be soft sometimes, though, and family is the one thing Leia lets past her hard exterior (the fact that her family seems to extend beyond her adoptive and birth parents alike is not overlooked, merely trivial).

Although she knew of her birth parents, she had never met either. She was fairly certain (as was the entire Rebellion) that her biological father was dead, and her mother had left her when she was only days old. Whether or not Padme Amidala of Naboo was dead or simply hidden was another matter entirely. There was only one being in the galaxy who knew where she was, and Leia wasn’t about to go on a hunt for a senile Jedi the size of a small child--she had enough of her own responsibilities.

“Princess Leia.”

Leia looks up at the droid, a jolt of pity sweeping through her. While she never thought of them as ‘people’, she did at least know that her real father had cared deeply for the ones in his orbit. Her father--the one who raised her, that is--had told her once that her birth father had been an advocate for the proper treatment of droids. “Yes?”

“Master Bail has requested your presence in the private sitting room. We have guests.” As if it’s a secret, he leans closer and says, “they have lightsabers.”

Her thoughts shift to the two Sith of the Emperor’s, but she knows that there’s only one remaining. And if there are _two_ … Perhaps they’re Jedi?

When she sets foot inside the sitting room, their backs are to her, though she can see her father is facing both of the men along with Leia, so he notices her entrance.

One of them turns, and all thoughts leave her.

“Obi-Wan?” She knows she shouldn’t get ahead of herself, but Obi-Wan had visited often when Leia was a child, suddenly stopping when she was only eight years old. She’d been sure he wasn’t dead, but she couldn’t help but feel as if something terrible had happened at the time. “It’s good to see you.”

Obi-Wan nods, a small smile lighting his face, and then the other turns around, blue eyes taking in every inch of her. She isn’t sure why, but she feels like she should know him, for some reason.

The first thing he says is, “You look like Padme.”

His voice is deep, and rough, like he hasn’t used it very much. There’s a scar over his right eye that extends to his cheekbone, but other than that his face is unblemished. His demeanor reminds her a lot of Obi-Wan’s when he’d first visited, back when she was a child.

“Thank you,” Leia finally answers, when she realizes she’s been quiet to the point of being rude. “I’m sorry, I just…”

“Leia,” her father interrupts, “I’d like for you to meet Anakin Skywalker.”

 _Anakin Skywalker,_ she thinks. She knows that name.

Everything clicks, the world spins, and Leia stares. “You’re alive?”

She isn’t sure how she feels. On the one hand, this is her _father_ , the Jedi who fell in love with her mother, but disappeared the day she was born. The man her mother loved so much that she married him despite the ramifications they would face if they were found out.

On the other, he’s been missing--presumed _dead_ \--since the day of her birth.

He looks just as uncomfortable as Leia herself feels.

“I was certain we’d have a daughter,” he finally says. He may be uncomfortable, but he holds himself with all the poise of a Jedi master. “I guess I was right.”

-

“So…”

Luke hasn’t been able to keep time since his arrival on the _Devastator_ . For one thing, The Emperor’s Left Hand really _hates_ him, and for another, he hasn’t been able to leave his cell since his first interrogation. He receives one decently-portioned meal a day, according to the guards who deliver it, but Luke can’t even be sure they’re actually feeding him once per day, or twice a day. It doesn’t _feel_ like they wait twenty-four standard hours between bringing his meals, but as much time as he spends meditating and shielding his presence from the constant searching of the Darkness, he really doesn’t know how long he waits.

A part of him wishes he hadn’t been home when they raided his shop. A part of him wishes he’d left Tatooine a year ago, when his best friend had sent him a message that he was defecting from the Imperial Flight Academy to join the Rebellion. But then he never would have found out the truth about Darth Vader.

Maybe he should have followed his gut and tailed Anakin when the man slipped away earlier that morning, only hours before they came. But he couldn’t bring himself to trust a stranger, not after everything he’s been through. So, for the first time in a very long time, Luke had ignored the Force, and it had gotten him into trouble.

_I’m sorry. Next time I’ll listen, I promise!_

And yet, somehow, despite the Force-dampening binders on his wrists, he can sense that the sentient non-being that is the Force is still holding a grudge.

“Do you have some weird, worship thing going on with Darth Vader, or…?”

The room around him grows colder, but the woman doesn’t even twitch. He can’t see her face for her mask, but he’s almost certain that Lady Obruo is glaring hatefully at him. “How did you dispose of the body?”

Yeah, she _absolutely_ has some weird obsession with the man he’d come to kind of like during his stay.

Luke leans back in the uncomfortable durasteel chair. “I took it out into the dunes and burned it. The ash is surely dispersed, and anything leftover was either buried in a sandstorm or scavenged by krayt dragons. Kriff, lady, are you hellbent on bringing his body back to the Emperor or something, like some sort of twisted present? Is there some sort of ritual thing you Sith are supposed to do?”

He shouldn’t be talking so much, but his time in meditation had helped ease his broken jaw enough that the roar of pain has dulled slightly. It isn't much, but enough to form words even though it's not recommended for him to speak at all.

And then her fist clashes against his temple and Luke can do nothing to stop the strength of it from sending him tumbling to the floor, can do nothing but watch his vision turn white from the new, fiery pain added onto the old.

 _Kriff_ , he just wants to go _home_.

But _Home_ is gone, and Luke has nothing left. Again.

Sure, his shop had been sloppy and lonely, but it had been _his_ , and Luke had been the best damn mechanic in Anchorhead. He can never return. Everything he’d owned, everything he’d had left, is _gone_ , destroyed, burned just like Owen and Beru had been burned, like his childhood had been burned.

He struggles to pull breath back into his lungs, and when he manages to pry one of his eyes open, the woman is gone and the guard stands beside the door looking vaguely uncomfortable. Well, Luke _thinks_ he looks uncomfortable, but he’s a stormtrooper, and all stormtroopers wear helmets that filter out smoke. Therefore, Luke can’t actually see his face, but he _does_ look uncomfortable.

He breathes through his nose and works to push himself up, but the room tilts around him and Luke’s stomach churns at the movement.

_Great, I’m concussed._

If only his aunt could see him now, he’d surely be getting the scolding of his life.

-

“I don’t actually know a whole lot about you.”

Honestly, Anakin isn’t all that surprised. The few people who _had_ known a lot about him were either Obi-Wan, or missing-in-action. Anakin doesn’t even know how to piece together everything that happened directly before, during, and after his fall. At this point, he doubts he’ll ever fully understand the events leading up to the Boy’s rescue of him.

“What do you want to know?”

On the one hand, it’s a little hard to look at Leia. Her likeness to Padme is… irrevocable, and he’s come to understand that she, too, wants to someday be a Senator.

But on the other hand, he doesn’t want to look away. According to Obi-Wan, he has already lost one child. He at least wants to have a relationship with this one.

He’s doing his best not to dwell on the son he missed out on, the son who died in the deserts of Tatooine, probably after watching his aunt and uncle shot down and burned before his very eyes.

Had he been scared? Had it hurt?

Anakin will never know the truth of the matter, because his son had died years ago. (He realizes that a piece of his heart will never stop looking for the boy anyway.)

“Why didn’t you come sooner?” She winces at the bluntness of the question, but doesn’t take it back. He doesn’t blame her. It’s more of an Anakin thing to do than a Padme thing, and he doesn’t really need anybody to point out that he’s the pot calling the kettle black, so he simply nods.

“Truthfully, I didn’t know you were alive. I was under the impression that everybody I loved was dead.” And it aches, it _aches_ . His daughter was alive, but her twin was well and truly gone, and not a single one of them knew about _Padme_. “I was… enslaved. I crashed my ship, though, and a boy saved my life. He hid me from my Slaver and freed me from my torment, and that’s how Obi-Wan found me. We ran into each other and decided it was time to join the Rebellion.”

“And the boy that saved you, what did he say?”

Anakin meets her gaze. “When I returned to thank him, his shop had been destroyed and he’d been taken captive by the Imperial Fleet for helping a Jedi.”

Leia says nothing for a long moment.

“We should help him.”

“I agree, but--” Anakin feels a little breathless. “ _We_?”

She shares with him a secretive smile. “I joined the Rebellion when I turned sixteen--a little over a year ago, now. They don’t always share mission details with me, because I’m still a child to them, but I know that in five days, a Squadron is meant to launch an attack on the _Devastator_. If we want to help the kid who saved my father, it would be best if we did it before then, don’t you think?”

“Bail won’t--”

“If my other father has a problem with me wanting to do the right thing, after giving his blessing when I joined the Rebellion, he knows that I’ll tell him _exactly_ where to shove it.”

If there was ever any doubt that she was his daughter (there wasn’t, not since he laid eyes on her), it’s certainly gone now. That’s _definitely_ something he would have said.

-

There’s something invigorating, Leia thinks, about sneaking out of her life-long home with her new father to rescue a boy that may or may not be alive.

Sure, if she’d simply pointed out to her father--Bail, that is--that it simply felt right to rescue the person who’d rescued Anakin Skywalker, he might not have protested at all, but Leia knew it was a risk to ask permission. Better to ask forgiveness, she thinks.

Besides, even if they had asked her adoptive father, there’s no guarantee that he would have allowed Leia to go on the mission, seeing as it’s Darth Vader’s flagship that they’re launching the rescue _on_. Darth Vader, the Emperor’s Right Hand, the second in command of the Galactic Empire.

A dead man.

She doesn’t know if Vader is truly dead, but the Emperor himself had announced it to the entire Galaxy. Maybe Vader had escaped. Maybe Vader had simply realized that the Emperor was crazy and decided to go AWOL.

“What are you thinking about?”

Her father is a pilot. It’s one of the very few things Leia _had_ known about him, so she doesn’t dwell on the fact much, but it is nice to see him in his element. He’s seemed so very awkward since the moment they met.

“I was thinking that if Vader isn’t dead, he certainly did his best to get as far from the Emperor as possible.”

Anakin--she doesn’t really know how to think of him. Father seems strange, but so does his name.

He snorts derisively, leaning back in the pilot’s seat with his arms crossed.

“Believe me, Vader’s escape is a blessing.”

_Sounds like personal experience talking, doesn’t it?_

“What do you mean?”

But he doesn’t provide an answer, only stares out the transparisteel as if the white and blue lines of hyperspace will explain the secrets of the universe to him. And Leia doesn’t want to upset him by pressing the matter. He may be her father, but she’s only just met the man. He seems kind, and strong, but also so _shaken_ , and she can’t explain that. Leia doesn’t know what it means.

The little astromech droid that’s followed her around since she was a child rolls forward, bumping into her father’s knee, and Anakin looks down, expression going from a guarded pain to something more akin to joy or wonderment.

“Artoo! Hey, buddy, it’s so good to see you!”

The droid beeps at him, and her father responds as if he can understand it. Threepio follows, though it’s less enthusiastic. “Excuse me, sir, I don’t believe we’ve properly met. I am See-Threepio, human--”

“Human cyborg relations. You don’t know me, but I know you.”

“Hold on, these droids--”

He finally turns back to her, patting Artoo’s dome. “Artoo was my astromech during the Clone Wars, and I built Threepio when I was a kid to help my mother.”

Her father… built Threepio? Her father built Threepio, and understands Binary. Things she’d never known about him.

Anakin pats Artoo again. “Artoo, did you happen to backup Threepio’s memory banks before they wiped them?”

A series of beeps that Leia is forced to take as confirmation when Anakin responds and requests that the Protocol Droid’s memory banks be restored.

When Leia was little, and first discovered that she had been adopted, she’d been angry. Angry that her real parents had abandoned her, even though she loved her new parents. As she grew, her feelings on the matter changed, and she vaguely understood what her father had been telling her all along, that her parents gave her up to protect her.

But their lives, even now, are so strangely tied to hers. Her father had known Bail, and her strange, sort-of-uncle was her father’s friend, and her droids had once been her father’s droids…

So really, her parents had never truly left her at all.


	3. The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke, injured and alone, has a bad feeling about where this flagship is heading. He can only count the floor tiles so many times before he loses his mind. Lucky for him, he won't have to twiddle his thumbs for much longer.
> 
> Leia finally gets to meet the boy who rescued her father from his torment. Something about him is familiar and she likes him immediately, but this whole one-sided conversation thing is already getting on her nerves.
> 
> Some father-daughter bonding, some father-son bonding, some sibling bonding, and a touching reunion that falls mid-lecture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! It's been a while. Life is hectic for all of us, so I hope you'll forgive me. I'm afraid this story really _is_ going to take me a good chunk of time to complete. A few of you have given me some pretty neat ideas, and made some nifty assumptions, which is really exciting to be able to interact with.
> 
> I just have one question: Would a Sith-like mask even fit around Ahsoka's lekku? How would that work? I've already stated that we can't see Lady Obruo's face because of her mask. (I don't even know who she is yet hehheh...) So, to the person who asked if Ahsoka is Lady Obruo, the answer is... unclear. We don't know WHO is beneath the mask. ;)
> 
> Thanks to everybody who commented on the first and second chapters! Let's get this show on the road!
> 
> (This chapter has not been thoroughly proofread, please let me know if there are any glaring mistakes so that I can correct them.)

The more time he spends within it, the less comfortable Luke’s cell becomes. Not that it was particularly comfortable before, of course, but it’s even less so now. He’s been imprisoned for five days. He knows because he’d been given a lucky break and caught sight of a calendar when he’d been dragged from his cell into a set of rooms where he was hosed and scrubbed clean of the dust, sweat, and blood coating his skin. 

Does this mean he’s being taken to the Emperor? Because that’s just  _ weird _ . This whole situation is weird, and Luke wants  _ off of this stupid ship _ .

At this point, he’s been back in his cell for what he thinks is near two hours, and he’s memorized the floor pattern three times since his imprisonment. From three different angles.

His head hurts, his face hurts, and Luke’s  _ tired _ .

So, naturally, he almost doesn’t notice when the ship rocks as if it’s been shot at. Almost.

But he does notice, and even despite his lack of connection to the Force, he can feel the Imperials responding to the threat, except… He gets a vague sense of confusion and then the power to the detention block  _ cuts _ .

There’s no longer a ray shield keeping him in place, and so instead of sitting around waiting for them to lock him back up, Luke swiftly exits his cell and realizes--he’s the  _ only _ prisoner in the entire detention block.

_ Kriff, they really are trying to take me to the Emperor, aren’t they? _

But Luke doesn’t let his mind wander. He may have an awful headache, and his jaw may be broken, but there’s some sort of fluke and he’s getting the chance to escape, or somebody is rescuing him ( _ who would rescue a mechanic, anyway? _ ).

At least he can feel the Force again, fully and comfortably. And it’s  _ singing _ to him, like it’s very pleased and something is surely going it’s way. And if things are going according to the Force’s plan, then Luke  _ definitely _ has a chance to escape and he seriously needs to take it.

So without further contemplation, Luke follows the mystic prodding and turns left at the first divergence.

_ You’re really eager to get me out of here, aren’t you? _

He reaches out into his surroundings, hoping to discover where certain lifeforms are (i.e. Lady Obruo, who likes to hit him) so that he can avoid them. But the path that the Force has laid for him is surprisingly clear of hostiles and Luke doesn’t want to think of it as strolling, but he pretty much strolls into the weirdly empty hangar at the same time as two other people--one of whom is the former Vader himself.

_ Anakin? _

The man’s head whips around and he whoops. “Kid! Boy, am I glad to see they didn’t execute you.”

Luke quickens his pace, joining them beside the small transport that they must have come on.  _ How did you know they had me? _

“Well, Obi-Wan and I came back to thank you and your shop was destroyed, so we asked around. I wanted to come right away, but Obi-Wan didn’t want me anywhere  _ near _ this ship and he thought it would be better if we--”

“You can explain everything when we’re  _ off of this ship _ !” the girl beside him demands, gesturing to the open ramp. “Besides, he needs medical attention, like,  _ yesterday _ !”

Anakin makes a face. “Right, sorry kid. This is Leia. She’s my daughter.”

_ You probably didn’t tell her about the whole slave-of-the-Emperor thing, did you? _

Luke’s really glad he developed a bond with Anakin while the man was recovering in his shop, because he’s well aware that if he tried to talk  _ now _ , when he hasn’t been able to meditate due to the constant turbohammer pounding against his skull, he’d likely pass out. Or cry. Either way.

And it helps that he had basically ripped out the slippery threads of the Emperor’s bond with Anakin before feeding his own bond with the man.

“No,” Anakin finally replies quietly, leaving Luke with Leia and a medical droid and moving into the cockpit.

-

Luke doesn’t know how he feels about Anakin’s daughter. She’s… weirdly familiar to him, even though he’s certain he’s never met her before. She has a slight force presence, but he doesn’t think it’s enough of one to train her with, and yet the Force still wants him to reach out to her.

But Luke’s had  _ enough _ of reaching out to strangers. He really can’t go home, because his home is gone, and now that Anakin’s debt has been paid, the man will likely drop him at any spaceport if he asks, but the thing is…

The thing is-

Luke doesn’t even know where he would go.

“What’s your name?” the girl, Leia, asks. And then falters. “Nevermind, you aren't able to speak, I can’t ask you much of anything.” She leans back in the chair beside him, crossing her arms. “We’re on our way back to Alderaan. My father--that is, my  _ other _ father, the man who adopted me--is Alderaan’s Senator. And when we get back, Obi-Wan and, er, Anakin… They’re going to the Alliance. I’m sure you’d be welcome to join them, if you wanted.”

He has never really thought about joining the rebels, and doesn’t exactly know how to point that out. On the one hand, yes, he hates the Emperor and wouldn’t necessarily mind if the Republic was restored.

On the other hand, nobody has ever done anything to help Luke since his aunt and uncle died, and he’ll be damned if he just up and devotes his life to a cause that has a very small chance of success.

He feels the jolt that signifies their jump into hyperspace and closes his eyes while the on-board medical droid gives him a once-over. It can’t repair his wounds, but it can at least lessen his pain for a while.

“I’m sorry they did this to you, kid.”

_ What did I tell you about calling me a kid! _

The man joins them at the table with a small laugh. “Look, you’re the same age as my daughter, and that makes you a kid to me.”

_ Ha! She doesn’t exactly seem all that young, either, Anakin. I’ll have you know I’ve lived on my own since I was eight years old! _

Anakin’s expression falls.  _ Kriff, kid. Are you sure you should have rescued me? They took everything from you... _

There’s no question in Luke’s mind that he was meant to save this man, and he projects as much, glancing at the girl, who’s looking between them like they’re the strangest beings in the galaxy.

_ I don’t think Leia has access to the Force the way we do, but if you taught her some meditation, she may at least be able to pick up on emotions. _

“Huh. You make a valid point." He pauses, his facial expression at war with itself. "May I ask you a question?”

_ I don’t see why not. _

“How did you sever his connection to me?”

“Whose connection?” Leia asks, leaning forward in her seat. Anakin really should have thought ahead about whether or not he was willing to tell his daughter where he’s been for the past several years. Luke wants to laugh, but the past week has been nothing but absurd and he’s beginning to wonder if he’s just in a coma somewhere.

_ I ripped it out, roots and all. Reinforced the shielding over you so that he couldn’t feel you at all until you could shield yourself. His presence was entwined with almost everything in your head, it’s a wonder he didn’t render your mind useless. _

“So, he really thinks I’m dead?”

“ _ Who _ thinks you’re dead?!” Leia throws her hands up, looking completely  _ done _ with their conversation. At her raised voice, an astromech rolls in furiously, bumping against Anakin’s leg with an,  _ Everything was going fine, what could you have done to upset her in the last ten minutes? _

Luke stifles a laugh.

Anakin’s eyes light up. “You understand Binary?”

_ I grew up on a moisture farm and then opened a mechanic shop, _ he deadpans.

_ Maybe this one won’t be as crazy as you, Skywalker. _ The droid is still focused on Anakin while it speaks, and that’s when something clicks in Luke’s brain.

Skywalker. The man he saved, the man who came to rescue him, is  _ Anakin Skywalker _ , Jedi Knight. Luke’s father. Luke’s  _ father _ . Anakin Skywalker, a man his aunt and uncle had said was a space pirate, a navigator on a spice freighter, a scoundrel but one who had loved Luke.

And that means that this girl, the one who feels so familiar, is his  _ sister _ .

And  _ that _ means, Luke isn't alone.  _ Luke isn’t alone, and he never will be again. _ Not if he has anything to say about it.

“Kid? Hey, are you okay? Kid--”

_ I’m fine. Sorry, I… I didn’t realize I was in the presence of Anakin  _ Skywalker _. You’re a legend, and I… _

Anakin--his  _ father _ \--makes a face. “Don’t be silly. I was practically reduced to nothing when you found me, so if anybody’s a legend, I think it might actually be you.”

-

Leia’s just about fed  _ up _ with the weird one-sided conversation thing that the men have going on. They keep  _ bonding _ , and that means that this kid she doesn’t know has more of a relationship with her father than she likely ever will.

And weirdly enough, she doesn’t even  _ mind _ . The kid looks like he’d been hit in the face repeatedly, and she won’t be surprised if he passes out right at the table at any given moment. His jaw is broken, he has a concussion, and Leia can’t help but wonder exactly what they wanted from him.

But it’s not just the fact that he’s injured that makes it easy for her to accept him. Sure, he saved her father, and sure, he’d been imprisoned for it, but there’s something about him that’s eerily familiar, and  _ that’s _ the thing that makes her feel so… 

Well. She’d be okay with it if he decided to stick around, is what she’s trying to say.

With her father having returned to the cockpit, Leia and the nameless boy beside her turn to study each other. He must find her familiar, too, because he studies her like he’s trying to learn everything about her just by looking at her. If she wasn’t doing the exact same thing to him, she might be unnerved. As it is, she’s more amused than anything else.

It’s when Threepio shuffles in and pauses just inside the doorway that things begin to click into place.

“Oh, my. Artoo, am I the only one here who feels as if I’ve stepped backward in time?”

The little blue astromech releases a series of beeps, and the boy’s eyes light up because he understands the droid. She kind of wishes she had learned Binary when the option was available to her.

Threepio shuffles up to him and reaches out a hand. “Why, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Master Luke.”

Leia blinks. “Your name is Luke?”

Threepio turns to her. “Oh, dear, have I done something I shouldn’t have?”

Luke inclines his head--hopefully not enough to aggravate his concussion, though he winces slightly.

So, he has a name. “No, Threepio, it’s fine. Luke here has a broken jaw, so he’s not exactly speaking at the moment, but I’m sure he’s pleased to meet you, too.”

At least, she assumes he is. A part of her hopes...

-

Anakin’s just a little shaken up. He’s not really bothered with the fact that the kid called him a legend, it’s more of the fact that he’d gone completely unresponsive the moment he’d learned Anakin’s last name.  _ Is it because somebody who was supposed to be so strong was reduced to nothing at the hands of Palpatine? _

But what else could it be?

And another thing! The kid had strolled into the hangar like he had no idea why he was suddenly free until he’d seen them. Had he thought Anakin wouldn’t even try to help him? Why?

_ “I’ve lived on my own since I was eight years old!” _

Oh. On a planet like Tatooine, alone means  _ alone _ . When he was a slave boy, the other slaves had looked out for him, and some of the village elders, but Anakin had been a lucky slave when Watto bought him and his mother. Watto hadn’t been all that rough, but Anakin had still been a  _ slave _ . A piece of  _ property _ . Expendable to him.

And then Qui-Gon had freed him. And Obi-Wan had accepted him. And  _ Padme _ .

_ Focus, Anakin. Return to Alderaan first, collect Obi-Wan, join the Rebellion. Ask the kid to stay, because clearly he’s alone. _

And honestly, Anakin really likes him. He’s funny and intelligent, and a hard worker.

And he’s alone.

Anakin remembers how lonely he’d been when the Emperor had him. How painful that reality had been.

_ Seventeen years. _

He’s pulled out of his thoughts when the ship alerts that they’ll be coming out of hyperspace. Anakin focuses his mind and mans the controls, hoping Obi-Wan isn’t too upset that he wasn’t invited. But Obi-Wan wants Anakin as far from the Emperor as possible, even though Anakin has the sneaking suspicion that Palpatine will never be able to reach into his mind again. Whatever the kid did, it’s  _ final _ . The Force hums with the truth of it.

Leia joins him in the cockpit when they enter Alderaan’s atmosphere, giving her personal clearance code when prompted. And then she turns to him. “His name is Luke.”

_ Luke? Your name is Luke? _

He receives the gentle confirmation and simply nods. “So, how’d you piece that together?”

His daughter shrugs. “Artoo seemed to know his name. He told Threepio, and Threepio seemed really excited. He was confused when I didn’t know Luke’s name, though.”

Luke from Tatooine…

The Force tugs at him, but his train of thought is broken the second he’s close enough for Obi-Wan to tug on their bond and start scolding him.

_ WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE FORCE DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?! _

Even Luke flinches, having shuffled into the cockpit to look out the transparisteel at the city below. Apparently, Obi-Wan is very not pleased.

_ I’m sorry, Master. Really, it was Leia’s idea. _

_ DO NOT TRY TO PIN THIS ON YOUR DAUGHTER! _

Luke suppresses a laugh, but Anakin hears it anyway.

The three of them awkwardly shuffle off of the ship, Artoo and Threepio following along faithfully. Even Leia seems to understand that they’re walking the gallows, and she  _ didn’t _ hear Obi-Wan yelling at him.

_ Look on the bright side! _ Luke points out.  _ At least you can use me as an excuse! Just show them my adorable, injured face. _

Anakin doesn’t bother to suppress his laugh at that. At least the kid’s finding the humor in their situation.

-

Luke has no doubt that his identity will soon be disclosed. Artoo absolutely knows that he is related to the people who rescued him, and kindly informed Threepio that Luke hadn’t shared his identity with the other humans yet.

But they’ll take him to an actual doctor when they see that there wasn’t much the med-droid could do. And he’s pretty sure this Obi-Wan will have a few questions for him. He’s pretty sure his  _ father _ will have questions for him, too. And the others, when he’s finally allowed to speak.

Two men come running onto the landing pad, but it’s the one in front that makes him falter, makes him stop in his tracks.

He knows that man. He knows him, because that man had been a part of his life when he was a kid, had been his mentor in the Force. That man probably would have taken Luke in, if Luke had thought to look for him. But Luke hadn’t stuck around after his aunt and uncle died, so, assuming the man had looked for him, Luke had completely missed him.

And, of course, why would Old Ben continue to look for him if he believed Luke was dead? Especially since there were three bodies that burned in the homestead?

Not that Ben--or Obi-Wan, as Luke’s father refers to him--is actually very old. He looks younger now than the last time Luke had seen him, and it strikes him  _ why _ , now. Obi-Wan carries far less grief than he had when Luke was a child, that’s clear.

Because of Anakin.

Because Luke  _ freed _ Anakin.

He hardly takes in the reunion before him. He’s vaguely aware of the man Luke can only assume is Leia’s adoptive father scolding her about leaving without permission, and just barely more aware of Ben--Obi-Wan--scolding Anakin for returning to  _ that Force-forsaken Executor _ .

Artoo knocks into Luke’s leg.  _ You should probably intervene. _

Yeah, he really should, but his legs feel like they’ve been bolted to the ground, and it takes a moment to convince himself they truly aren’t.

_ Anakin, may I speak to Obi-Wan for a moment? _

Anakin glances back at him, pleading.  _ Please, kriff, I haven’t been lectured this hard since I was still a Padawan! _

And so, Luke straightens himself and crosses the short distance, gesturing for Anakin to join Leia in  _ her _ lecture. As Anakin backs away, Obi-Wan turns to face Luke and-

And falls silent, mid-lecture.

_ It’s been a long time, Ben. _

And it has. The man has been under the impression that Luke was dead for more than nine years--more than half as long as he’s believed that Anakin truly turned to the dark side.

“Luke?” he whispers, eyes flitting across Luke’s face, searching, and there’s a naked  _ hope  _ in his face, a longing that Luke hasn’t experienced in  _ so long _ .

And so, the floodgates open. His bond with Obi-Wan, which was formed when he was hardly five years old, is strengthened and filled, and the man practically  _ drags _ him into a hug.

All in all, he’s had a really absurd week.

_ Do they know? _ Obi-Wan prods gently. He has always been kind to Luke, and was always very watchful, protective, when Luke was a child. He’d had weekly lessons at Obi-Wan’s home until Owen decided he didn’t want Luke using the Force and cut off contact for a year.

But then Luke had needed a babysitter when there was a planetwide meeting for the moisture farmers, and Owen had reluctantly let Obi-Wan back in, if only because the Darklighters were going to the meeting, as well.

_ No. I only found out when Artoo called him “Skywalker”. Ben, I’m sorry. _

Obi-Wan lets him go, albeit reluctantly, reaching to brush his hair out of the way of the bruising on his temple. “You really need medical attention. What happened up there?”

_ Well, Obruo has some weird obsession with Father, and when I told her that I burned his body, she got very angry. And later, I may have told her that she was weirdly obsessed with a dead guy and asked if there was some creepy Sith ritual that she wanted the body for. And, uh, I think she was planning on taking me to the Emperor. _

“You’re just as reckless as Anakin!”

_ To be fair, I didn’t really expect anybody to come for me, Ben. It was either: provoke the weird lady who can’t use the Force, or come face-to-face with the Emperor. I was really hoping she’d end up killing me before we reached Coruscant. _

“That’s not funny,” Obi-Wan snaps, and Luke raises a placating hand.

_ I know that, Ben, but it’s still true. I know exactly what Palpatine did to my father. I ripped their bond apart myself. He was practically controlling Anakin’s every move. _

After a moment, Obi-Wan calms and the two of them turn to find the rest of their party watching them confusedly. Watching them like the holodramas that Aunt Beru used to watch when Uncle Owen wasn’t pestering her about how much work needed to be done before, during, and after the harvest.

Thankfully, Obi-Wan steps forward. “Bail, I’m afraid this young man needs immediate medical attention. He took quite a beating at the hands of the Empire’s Third In Command.”

_ Second, now, wouldn’t you assume? _ Luke can’t help but point out. Obi-Wan shoots him a glare.

-

“So, you and Obi-Wan know each other?”

Luke feels like the tables turned when he wasn’t looking. Their first conversation, Luke had been the vocal one while his father struggled to come to terms with his situation.

But now, Luke’s rendered speechless while his jaw finishes healing (thank the  _ Force _ for bacta tanks), and his father is the one speaking aloud.

_ He was always around when I was a kid. Our reunion was a little bit… unorthodox? He thought I was dead. _

“What?”

_ Ben--Obi-Wan--thought I died with my aunt and uncle. And I was so messed up when they died that it really never occurred to me to go to him. _

And Luke can’t stand the thought that he hurt Obi-Wan, even if he hadn’t meant to. It’s been eating at him since he laid eyes on the man, the man who’d been watching over him since he was born, his only  _ real _ connection to his father during his childhood. He doesn’t even know how many times Obi-Wan had convinced him not to run away from home, how many times Obi-Wan had stepped in when the sand people had attempted to collect him as a child.

His father is quiet, like he’s attempting to piece things together but hasn’t quite reached the big picture yet, so Luke pushes himself up despite the way the room spins and his vision blurs. Those things pass after a moment and he meets his father’s steady gaze, throat closing up with the weight of what he’s about to say.

_ There’s a reason I was caught off guard when I heard your last name. See, I was told my whole life that my father was dead. _

-

Luke’s mental voice is as calm as the very first time Anakin heard it, but his pleading gaze, the utter vulnerability there, nearly sends Anakin to his knees.

He’s been trying  _ so hard _ not to think about the son he’d never met, but Luke’s been right here all along, right under Anakin’s nose.

Anakin reaches out, cupping Luke’s face with his hands and studying eyes that are so clearly inherited from him. He feels like he’s going to fall apart at the seams. “I should have known. Only a Skywalker could be so reckless.”

Relief. Relief and love flood across their bond, and it’s all Anakin can do to wrap his arms around his son and  _ hold on _ . He does his best to send Luke as much love and reassurance and acceptance as he can, does his best to let his son know that he’s  _ wanted _ , that he isn’t  _ alone _ .

_ I’m here, _ his mind whispers across their bond, and Luke is pliant in his arms, letting Anakin pull him back down onto a seat.

_ You know, it’s possible that your mother could still be out there somewhere, too. _

Surprise wells up, emanating out of Luke with all the rest of his roiling emotions. Anakin rubs his back, hoping that he’s able to provide some level of comfort to his injured, traumatized,  _ living _ son. He never had the chance to practice being a parent, and Luke’s almost grown up.

Still, he’d been so lonely, had he ever really gotten to be a kid? Definitely not after Owen and Beru were killed.

_ Tell me about her? _

He hums. “Should I bring your sister in for this?”

After a moment, Luke pulls back, cheeks flushing.  _ We should tell her. _

Anakin stands, patting Luke's knee. “I'll be right back.” He thinks it's time for Leia to learn about his time under the Sith’s control, even if it ruins their tentative relationship. His son already knows the truth--knows and understands on a level that perhaps Anakin himself hasn’t quite reached. It’s only fair that he shares his past with his daughter, as well.

He doesn't have to go far to find Leia; she's seated just outside the door, only a few paces down the hall, watching him approach with a sheepish smile. “I don't know why, but I just feel like I  _ know _ him.”

“About that...,” Anakin begins, sinking into the chair beside her for a moment. “It turns out that Luke is your twin brother.”

As the statement settles over her, her arms come up to wrap around herself. Her voice is shaky when she replies. “W-what happened?”

Honestly, he doesn’t know where to begin. But, maybe… Maybe Luke can help. His understanding of the situation might “Come on, he’s waiting for us.” When he gets up and holds out a hand, Leia doesn't hesitate to take it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, somebody tell me if a sith-like mask would work for Ahsoka, because that would be _cool_. What would it look like? Surely, everybody would see her lekku anyway, right? Or does she keep her hood up at all times, too? I need answers, people!


End file.
